Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) is hitting a number of early-voting and swing states to pitch voters on how the Democratic Party should reset, fueling speculation he’s eyeing a 2028 bid.
Gallego, whose Senate victory last year was seen as a rare bright spot for Democrats, was most recently in New Hampshire and Iowa. Despite downplaying the idea that he might run in the next presidential cycle during an event in the Granite State, his travels have only spurred chatter over the first-term senator.
But while members of the party see Gallego as a rising star within the party, he still faces the tall task of building his national profile in the shadow of higher-profile figures like California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
“Part of me wants to say, ‘Well, you know, a sitting senator running for president who’s been in office less than two years has no chance,’” said Arizona Democratic consultant Adam Kinsey.
“But then I remember that I worked for Barack Obama back in 2007 and heard a lot of that same rhetoric, and he rose above it,” he added.
Gallego has seen his star rise in recent months after he defeated Kari Lake, now senior adviser at the U.S. Agency for Global Media, in a tight contest to succeed former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.).
The Arizona Democrat, who had previously represented a Phoenix-area House seat for a decade, was among a handful of Senate Democratic candidates who won their contests in key battleground states despite former Vice President Harris falling short in each of them.
The first-term senator has been frank about his prescriptions for the Democratic Party, including urging members of his party to meaningfully engage with Latino and Hispanic voters, focus on the middle class and give reasons for key voting blocs like young men to vote for the party.
“We’re just not ever going to be as cool as some of these Republicans, it’s just not,” Gallego said an interview with The Hill in May about how the party could attract young men back. “And honestly, even when we try, we look very fucking fringe doing it, right?”
“But what about, like, really calling to them and trying to give [them] a vision of a future that they get excited about?”
Gallego further positioned himself within the national conversation after traveling to several notable presidential primary states this month, including attending the Iowa State Fair and a “Politics & Eggs” event, which is hosted by the New England Council and the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College — both mainstays for anyone seriously considering a White House run.
The Arizona Democrat seemed to downplay the idea during his visit in the Granite State that he might run in 2028, saying at the “Politics & Eggs” event on Friday, “I don’t know where my future goes. I don’t see it happening,” noting his growing family.
“I know I have a message, I know this message helps and if Democrats can use it, we can win,” he added.
His team maintained that his focus amid his travels have been on supporting his party even as his stops in Pennsylvania, Iowa and New Hampshire have raised questions about his next moves.
“Ruben is traveling to listen, learn, and support Democrats on the ground — not to talk about 2028,” Gallego chief of staff Raphael Chavez-Fernandez told The Hill in a statement.
“His focus is on making sure the party is delivering for working families today and building strength for the elections ahead.”
Democrats are reading the tea leaves nonetheless, suggesting he’s at least considering it. Members of the party who have seen Gallego during his early state visits said they’ve come away impressed with him, noting he’s engaging and comes well-prepared.
“You could see that he had done some homework,” said Iowa state Sen. Matt Blake (D), who accompanied Gallego when the senator visited the state fair.
“Our conversation focused on whether the impacts of tariffs … how that was impacting the ability for us to export our soybeans and our corn,” Blake said. “And he was very interested in what those impacts were having on our economy here in the state.”
Scott Merrick, who worked on Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s (D-Minn.) and former President Biden’s 2020 campaigns in New Hampshire, attended the “Politics & Eggs” event on Friday, saying he appreciated how Gallego could take issues that impacted voters in one state and apply them to the Granite State.
Merrick said he wanted more clarity from the senator about New Hampshire’s status as the first-in-the-nation primary after asking Gallego about it directly. Merrick said he gave a “nod” to the Granite State, noting it has independents and rural voters – the kinds of voters Gallego said the party would need in order to win back the House in 2026, for example.
“So he kind of gave a nod to New Hampshire but stopped short of saying that New Hampshire should be the first-in-the-nation primary,” Merrick said. “So hopefully when he comes back, we can get him to answer that a little bit more directly.”
The taller task ahead for Gallego, however, will be convincing Democrats that he could be their next leader — just months out from his first Senate election and coming at a time when the party is looking to hit the reset button after a disappointing November election.
“He needs to both make sure that he is the standard bearer for what the Democratic message moving forward is, and he also needs to be the person that is defining himself in a way that … breaks out from the pack,” Blake said.
A number of Democrats tend to invoke Obama when they talk about Gallego. The former president only served in the Senate for a few years before catapulting to the highest office in the country. And while Democrats are enamored with their governors in California, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and beyond, the party hasn’t nominated one as their candidate since 1996.
Liz Minella, a Democratic fundraiser, said she first crossed paths with Gallego during the 2024 election cycle at a fundraising event in the northern Chicago suburbs, hailing his appearance as “incredible.”
But she said that Democrats these days needed a fighter like Newsom, noting “it’s just a completely different battlefield than in 2008.”
“He seems really measured and analytical and has a keen understanding of the way voters think. He has great foreign policy experience. He seems to work really well with colleagues,” Minella said of Gallego.
“I wish we still lived in that movie version of United States politics. But it’s not the ‘West Wing’ anymore,” she added. “It’s like — it’s worse than ‘Veep.’”
Arizona Democrats are also not discounting the fact that they could see both of their senators running for the highest office in the country, both of whom are military veterans but have starkly different resumes and lanes for appeal.
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), who was on Harris’s short list for running mates in 2024, has evaded questions around 2028 and has traveled to notable states like South Carolina and Michigan with his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.).
Gallego opted against running for Senate during the 2020 cycle, looking to avoid a bitter primary against Kelly at the time. But the two could be on a collision course in a few years – something that Democrats in the Grand Canyon State don’t mind at all, even if it means several cycles of Senate elections all over again.
“Boy, if we had to go through that, then that means some positive things have happened,” said Jim Pederson, a former Arizona state party chairman who calls both men friends.
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